Dwayne and Mary Miller, owners of The People’s Emporium have packed up, lock, stock and barrell. They are moving the establishment to 408 W. Broad Street which was the former “Mermaid Castle” owned by Terri Maria. The Emporium will be opening sometime in May.
THE MOVE FROM DOWNTOWN
The Millers sit out on their front porch dreaming about all the things they are going to do with their business - The People’s Emporium. With ownership and two lots there are many things to dream about. One of the new things the couple will bring in are weekly food trucks.
Although right now, Dwayne’s inventory of woodworking items are a bit depleted with the move and the organization of the new location, he is planning on getting back into his woodworking studio to begin to carve his wood products once again.
Perhaps a cornhole tournament is on the horizon at the new location of The People’s Emporium. Dwayne Miller can carve them and customize them for you.
ELIZABETHTOWN – Once nestled in the heart of downtown E-town was a shop that tested the limits of eclectic. It continues to do that today – but from a different location.
I believe it was Horace Greely “Go West…” Somewhere along the way Dwayne and Mary Miller must have heeded the word as they packed up the eclectically fashioned wagon train and took their wares westward.
Actually, the trip wasn’t that long and they are still on Broad Street but their permanent address is now 408 W. Broad – and instead of renting a space, they now own their own building with a possibility of one day utilizing the attic, two lots and a cool outbuilding that will be remodeled into an artist studio. Presently the house has 1500 square feet not counting the attic or the outbuilding.
“Terri (Maria), who owned the mermaid castle went out of business,” Mary Miller said. “Our employee sent me a message telling me the building was for sale. So, we came over here and we looked at it and we knew that the possibilities are much better than where we were. The parking will be better, we’ll be able to hold festivals or activities or food trucks or birthday parties or whatever in the (vacant) back lot.”
The trade-off for ownership was a no-brainer for the Millers.
“We are a lot freer now that we own versus having a landlord,” Dwayne Miller said.
The couple who had been pursuing a liquor license in the downtown area encountered some snags and they are still trying to get their license at this more urban area.
“We have plans to have a weekly food truck,” she said. “You know, just having food trucks show up on a certain day of the week. Both lots are zoned commercial so we could do whatever. We are thinking about ax throwing and all different kinds of activities that we can have back there. Since we have the land we could have big birthday parties for kids with blow-up bouncy houses, water activities. We’ve been going crazy thinking about all the things we could do.”
Not one to get their cart before the horse. The move was first and foremost on their agenda and it was brutal for them to pull all that they had from their past location and move it the few blocks to the new place. It was pickup truck load after truck load. And once they moved it, the arduous job of inventory, organizing and designing began.
Not to mention the painting -which is being done both inside and out. With the new coats of paint, the couple are truly making it their own.
“The garage in the back is going to convert to a craft studio,” she said. “We’ll be able to hold more people for paint parties or parties in general. We are also going to better organize our inventory by category. There are more rooms in this house instead of a big open retail space.”
According to the Millers, the smaller, broken up areas will cause shoppers to better hone their focus instead of trying to take it all in at one time which has been a bit overwhelming – kind of like an “eclectic overload.” It will be an exploratory adventure going through the rooms and finding the different themes and different treasures in each cove.
“The back is already set up for the disc golf equipment,” she said. “The room with the fireplace will be homier and more welcoming when they first walk in. We won’t have a map to all the attractions, but each doorway to each room is large enough to have a sign as a clue as to what is through that doorway.”
The front porch, according to the Millers will be an advantage they didn’t have downtown. It is a place to sit under cover on rocking chairs and perhaps sip some tea or wait for a spouse that is finding something inside that they absolutely can NOT live without. It will also be a place to display perhaps signs on easels as to what to look forward to for the day or for the week.
Another great feature is that Maria left the gem mining equipment where kids can come and polish rocks and find out all it will take to exploring the makeup of the ground they walk upon every day. Dwayne points out that the gem mining station will also have running water.
“It’s going to be great,” Mary Miller said. “We are going to put two-disc golf practice baskets in the back and perhaps a barbecue area or a firepit with patio furniture. We want it to be like a place where people can come and hang out.”
“The studio is just a garage right now,” he said. “But it’s going to be drywalled, insulation, heat, air. It’s going to have the climate and feel just like you are here in the house. It will be very comfortable. As for the upstairs attic – that’s going to be a major project and it’s probably going to be quite a bit down the road. As far as my woodworking, I am very low on inventory right now due to minding the store, packing, moving and all that. But once this is set up, I’ll be back in my shop half a day through the week and then half a day here. My inventory is going to increase and include new stuff. I’ll be making more cutting boards, I will be turning things and also making things out of resin.
When people come in, I want them to have a happy experience,” she said. “I would like it to be more than just shopping. I want it to be a fun experience. As for the opening, all we can say is sometime in May.”
The People’s Emporium is a shop that has everything from dishcloths that never grow sour to handmade woodworking creations that will never wear out.
Emporium. It can mean many things from a center of trade to a store carrying many kinds of merchandise to a grand center of trade as a bazaar. Perhaps Fortune.com best sums up the great trading center of Elizabethtown owned by the Millers.
“Those who endure will understand that the key to success, as it was for the great emporiums of old, is building lasting relationships, customer by customer.”
Nailed it. Not only the shop itself, but the way that the Millers treat their customers. One at a time. Like family. A member of their gang.
And it’s true. Once you meet this symbiotic couple, you feel as if you’ve known them all your life.
One a bean counter. The other a creative woodworker. Two opposites that attracted and connected with a single word and together have been a delightful power couple in Bladen County.
How did a very southern boy and a very Cali girl come to form the blessing that is “The Millers,” gracing Elizabethtown with their infectious smiles and childlike pranks.
“I grew up a little bit of everywhere,” Dwayne says in his deep southern drawl. “My dad was a Southern Baptist minister and he had six or seven churches in his career. I was born in Morehead City, North Carolina, and I have also lived in the Virginia and the North Carolina mountains. One of his last churches was here, so this is just where I settled.”
Miller settled hard and though he was in the United States Coast Guard for eight years and then took a turn living out in Colorado, his heart was never from the city he called home in North Carolina.
He makes fun of himself at times to make people laugh. One would wonder if he lived in the prim and proper religion setting all his life, was the breaking out of the stoic a release? Perhaps it’s just that his talent is comedy and his calling is to bring laughter.
If he is the comedic partner in the pair, Mary has no problem being the straight person and trying not to laugh when her husband frames his face with a cornhole board or tells the story of how he’s so old that he remembers silent films, horses and buggies. They entertain each other and he enjoys making her laugh almost as much as she loves her husband that just cracks her up.
It’s a cool love story.
Mary was born on the opposite coast. In Long Beach, California. If you draw a straight line, almost on the same latitude line, there they were. One in a cold ocean (he calls it “her” ocean) and one in a warm ocean which he refers to as “our ocean.”
They were 2,701.6 miles and two years apart. But they both knew that God had a plan for their lives, and they know it had to be something spiritual that brought them together and keeps them together “for such a time as this.”
“I was the youngest of seven,” she said. “My dad was a WWII Pearl Harbor survivor actually.”
Her father was actually stationed on the Arizona and had been transferred in October 1941. He had more to do and children to rear.
When he was 46 years of age, his youngest was born and five years later, he passed away of a heart attack.
After years of working, military and moving from state to state, the couple not yet met were out west. Both in Colorado. Dwayne said he was kinda looking for her although he didn’t know who she was yet and Mary said she was just trying to get out of California.
“I loved the mountains, but I wanted to be in the real mountains, so my two children and I moved to Colorado,” she said.
“Well…” he said with a big pause as if he was wondering whether to release his secrets, but knowing if he didn’t, she would. “It was an online thing. And I hear people all the time saying, ‘aww you gotta be careful with that online stuff.’ You do, but I believe it will be successful as long as you take your time gettin’ to know somebody, watch for the red flags…”
At which point he pauses without looking at her and says, “she had a ton of them, followed by the statement, ‘not one honey, not one.’”
And he waits for her face to crack into a smile.
So, he liked what he saw and knew that he had to wow her with his wit and extended vocabulary.
“I said, I’m going to say ‘hi,’” he said.
And he did. One word. “Hi.”
He was shocked that it took her a month to respond.
“We talked and got to know each other a little bit online,” he said. “We exchanged phone numbers and the rest is history.”
After a while in Colorado, there was a calling to “go back home” for Dwayne, where his parents were and they loaded up the truck and they move to Elizabethtown.”
Mary who has always been somewhat of an entrepreneur and had run businesses before met a man who was up for anything she had a mind to do – and a few years back, they decided to lease with the option to buy the building that they are in now. They named it the People’s Emporium.
One thing that seals the couple and joins them so completely is their faith. They both grew up Southern Baptist, him a pastor’s son and her, a deacon’s daughter. They have never strayed from the beliefs and the relationship that each of them has with God. And to this day they laugh about the PK and the DK.
“One of the things we felt when we opened the store was that this was our mission field,” she said. “This is the place we wanted to have to bring people together. That is the purpose especially of this craft area.”
The sign on the awning out front says, “It’s a store for everything you didn’t know you needed.”
There is truth in advertising.
There are hand-painted local creations, handmade carved wooden treasures, dishcloths from across the ocean, metalwork, cornhole boards and about a million other things that can grab and hold your interest for hours.
“In January 2022 I was listening to an online sermon from Rick Warren,” she said. “He was talking about the different visions that we have. Different dreams. If it’s God-given, it’s going to meet certain criteria. One is going to be glorifying Him. One is going to be that have to depend on Him. It’s going to involve other people and it’s going to involve a lot of faith.”
The Millers know by the unfolding of this dream that they are right on time in the calling to open their shop and to be a ministry to Bladen County. It is still a work in progress and God himself only knows what it’s going to look like when it has come to fruition.
In the meantime, the world inside the Emporium is spinning fast and changes are happening. The dream is coming true for the Millers and their work.
The unique, the eclectic, the things made by the hands of man under the watchful eye of the creator. The shop is divine!
Mark DeLap is a journalist, photographer and the editor and general manager of the Bladen Journal. To see more of his bio, visit him at markdelap.com or email him. Send a message to: [email protected]